[throwawaywrench]

>Attack into the now empty space, the opponent Parries "into" the attack, but their body is out of the way

I've never done any sort of theater but have done some boxing and kickboxing type stuff. Newbies will often instinctively do what you describe and need to be trained out of it. A more advanced person sparring with the newer person will suddenly stop and make no attempt to get out of the way of an attack which will still not hit them because it was aimed at empty space in front of their nose for example.

[jfengel]

And that's why martial artists are often a problem for stage combat choreographers. Martial artists are trained to hit things; actors are trained to miss.

I've also found that martial artists are very confident in their aim and control. Actors must not be, because things go wrong on stage, and errors result in injuries. You may be able to stop your punch within 1 inch of my nose 999 times out of 1,000... but I'm not going to go on stage with you to find out if this is my unlucky day.

It's not that martial artists can't be good stage combatants. They just need to step back and relearn everything in a completely different way, rather than adapt what they already know.